Lordy, Lordy look who's 4 Eh!

Man 4 years go by fast. Too fast.
Just last week he was a baby in diapers.
Just yesterday he was a toddler and he was ripping keys off of my laptop computer. Good thing it was a work computer that was under warranty. For days the 'v' was a pain to press.


Today...he's still a toddler, just 1 year older and riding a bike. He's graduated from his trike to the 12" bike with training wheels and zooming up and down the street.
We ride every day now. And I don't even have to walk or run behind him. I can actually ride my bike and he's good to go.

I do the job of being the lookout for cars and if a car is coming, he hops of his bike and walks it off the street. I didn't even teach him this. He did it all on his own. It'd be faster if he just rode on the bike off the street, but whatever suits his fancy.


And this year, his birthday is also Earth Day. So we did our part and rode to and from school in the carriage. We also bought take out chicken from Loblaws and ordered a pizza from Pizza Nova. Not really Earth Day stuff in trying to reduce our carbon foot print. But everything was recyclable. I couldn't carry the pizza home on my bike, so I had to drive our fuel efficient civic a few kms to pick it up.

After this nap he was grumpy as anything.

Well there's a reason he's been cranky. He's been recovering from a virus all last week and he's still tired this week. We've been going to bed early every night. No more 10pm nights. We are up at 6:30am every day. More to keep his schedule, because ONE late night and I'm screwed in the mornings.





We're both still sneezing and our noses are both still running. But not nearly as bad.

Gesundheit!
Happy 4th Birthday Cranky.

Rawlicious

This is Rawlicious. Near Dundas St W. and Quebec Ave.
It's in the Junction Neighbourhood.

Everything they serve is basically raw. No cooking.
We'd driven by it many times. Curious to know what the cuisine was like. We were very pleasantly surprised.

I ordered a kale, spinach, pinepple, mango, banana smoothie and the nachos, and Tresa ordered the spring rolls and a juice, I forget which one. But both were very good.

Regular nachos are cooked or fried. These are dehydrated. And I'm not sure what they were made of, because they didn't look like regular nachos, but the salsa, guacamole and "sour cream" were very good. I recommend it. Same with the rice paper (cooked) spring rolls with tamarind sauce. Very tasty.
I found the spring roll I had kinda wet. But still good.

There is a touching story behind how the restaurant came to be. It's a husband and wife that started it a few years back. The wife was diagnosed with cancer at which point they changed their whole lifestyle. What they ate was a big part of it. She went into remission and they continued the practice of eating everything raw.

Check it out if you are in the neighbourhood.

www.rawlicious.ca

HB v2

With so many things going on last week, we just couldn't have a proper birthday for Tresa.

At least today we were able to slow down and find the time to get a cake and have candles to blow out and sing happy birthday and spend some downtime together.

This was a cakelet, that I got from the Loblaws around the corner from us.
The cakes are from Dufflets. It's chocolate cake and raspberry filling and some icing.Not too sweet. I was surprised Kieran opted o

ut of eating the icing end. So I ate it.

It was small, light and had no nuts.

But Kieran licked it and said it was doing something to his tongue.

So we may stay away from the Dufflets stuff.  We got his allergy test back and he was so proud of all the little dots on his arm.   He didn't realize that although his milk allergy is gone.  He had lots more.
Happy Birthday! 

As a gift Mother Nature gave us more cold temperatures and snow. 

And the rain and wet snow we got yesterday turned to ice.

So nice.

At least it wasn't like this for the race.

When is spring going to be here to

 stay?

The Four Amigos

Since we were the age of 10 we had always been friends. The Canadian redneck, the gook, the geek and the new guy with the accent that got past immigration and somehow got a canadian citizenship. Little did we know that we'd still be the best of friends today and that we'd be the groomsmen in each others weddings.

Finally the last of the Four Amigos is no longer a bachelor.
A few weeks ago we had the stag and doe, and it made me realize that we don't always grow wiser and how painful it is to grow older. Recovery is always slower. But we always get better with time.

We also realized that, that's it for weddings between us. A new era is unfolding.
An era of old school songs and how we used to dance and no matter how funny it looked. The idea was not to look cool and hip. But to have fun. Everyone remembers the guy having fun, not the wallflower on the verge of blacking out.


We realize that today's shows are nothing compared to what we grew up watching. Those shows weren't about being superficial, being catty or being rich. It was about being a hero and fighting evil. Helping others, especially those who are unable to help themselves.



We're moving on up! To the east side. In a deee-lux apartment in the sky. Remember what it was like when we were growing up. Black and white.
We live in a very diverse multicultural society. That continues to evolve. Yellow, brown, beige - you mix it, you name it.



This could be either the Godfather or a reference to the Queen and how much we loved to embrace the monarchy.
Your choice. One is a classic that movies today try to emulate, and the other is just old world class, that this new world is often lacking.


I think we've come to realize that family values are the most important things you can pass on to the younger generation. Teach the kids of today to be responsible. Care for the environment, respect others and respect yourself, we need to lead by example.



And above all, take stock in what you have. And not focus on what you don't have.
Don't just acknowledge what you have, appreciate, embrace, nurture and protect it with your life.
Only once it's gone, will you'll realize their full value.



And don't be wearing your pants around your ankles showing your boxers. That's just not a style I can appreciate.
Remember to always wear clean underwear and socks. Invest in good clothes. Looking good makes you feel good.

Click me for more photos of Ray & Kim's wedding at Old Mill.

Walking the plank
East vs. West dance battle
Answer to the Final Jeapardy question

Back in the red

I was bagged for this run. We arrived home around 2:30am from a wedding. The last of the Four Amigos, finally got married.

Woo hoo! Good times. Nice venue.

But I decided that I'd do the race anyways, knowing this. So I drank very little. Some champagne, a glass of wine, gin and tonic, and lots of water. And I ate lots of bread and whatever was on my plate. It was yummy. I would have taken a photo but I wolfed it down. I was doing my race prep.

For the first time I was in the second corral (Green). Since my time last year was just past 40mins. I had to tie my shoelace in the last km to the finish and it ate into my buffer for the finish up Spring Hill. This time around I made sure my laces were tied.

Like I said. I was tired. It didn't help that it was windy and chilly. But at least it wasn't raining.
It felt like I was laboring the whole way. At 4k I was just over 18mins. I was on track. Between 6 and 7k it was getting tough. By the time I hit 7k I figured I'd better hurry up to the bottom of Spring Hill. It was a 300m hill but after 7.5k getting up this hill your heart feels like it's going to explode. I didn't stop, but getting up this hill was tough.

My good friend Carol saw me and blasted her megaphone to give me that last little bit to get to the top and finish. I also heard some yell my name. Not sure who it was but I'm sure it was someone from our fitness club.

I was so tired. I'd pretty much left it out on the course. My head was pounding. I even forgot to stop my stopwatch. The race clock said 39:23. My watch said 39:06 and that's when I remembered to hit stop.

This is my take home prize. Reason why I do the 8k instead of the 5k. Is because I get to hit the food station before any 5k'ers arrive. I get enough for the week. I thought I had gotten more bagels but I know I ate 1 and thought I had at least 1 more. Ah well. They're fattening anyways.
Master Dave "firefighter" Lee was my mentor and is the king of this grab-n-stash technique. Although I think he'd be disappointed I didn't fill my knapsack.

# Splits Time
1k 4:34.63 4:34.63
2k 4:32.51 9:07.14
3k 4:49.19 13:56.33
4k 5:03.33 18:59.66
5k 4:58.99 23:58.65
6k 4:44.02 28:42.67
7k 4:56.02 33:38.69
8k 5:28.13 39:06.82

Official Chip Time: 38:52.3 (pace 4:51 per km)
Official Gun Time: 39:31.3

Next year I'm back in the RED corral where I belong!

Today is a gift

That's right it's not another year gone by. It's a new year for doing whatever. Spring is here and soon the rains will be gone and Summer will be around the bend.

No need to look to the past...because there's a saying.


"Yesterday is a history.
Tomorrow is a mystery.
Today is a gift, that is why they call it the present."

- Master Oogway

Looking forward to many more years of exploring the world we live in.

Happy Birthday. mama.
Love Kieran and papa